GP was banned years and years ago for something (I don't know what) and now their comments are all [dead] on arrival. People (sibling commenter to you did this) can vouch for these [dead] comments ([banned] cannot be vouched, IIRC, but is very rare). Also upvoting and vouching are separate things here. You vouch [dead] or [flagged][dead] comments, you can only upvote live comments. You never need to upvote before replying to a comment.
I'm pretty sure I'm hell banned, but forget about all the chemicals of the brain.
Read anything by Irving Kirsch.
He used The Freedom of Information Act to study All the antidepressants studies that were sent to the FDA by the pill pushers, Not just the cherry picked studies, but All.
He found they basically don't work better than Placebo.
Personally, I think the "Happy" drugs have been the biggest con job the American suffering have ever endured. At least we know opioids work--for awhile. Antidepesssnts just make Dr. Wealthy more wealthy.
My hope is most of these wonder drugs are sued into history, along with those mandatory doctor office visits.
Ask yourself this--why do Psychiatrists have the highest rate of suicide if these drugs work?
I'm glad we have residents whom picked an easy speciality upon graduation, but these drugs have such low efficy rates they should be illegal, or over the counter, with the exception of a few. Trazadone can be nasty. A bad reaction is cured by a needle to the middle part of the brain.
Most are easy on the body, but don't do anything besides make an Artist (Medicine is an art, and Psychiatrists are the milking to the bone.) wealthy.
Only for severe depression, if you take into account all clinical trials - including the ones buried by pharma companies. This is the work by Irving Kirsch being referenced here, and it's excellent.
Spraying water on your house usually doesn't accomplish very much unless your house is on fire. But if your house really is on fire, it is likely the only thing that works.
I'm not into the "Throw it all away trend. That whole minimalism trend the wealthy can experiment with.", but when it comes to paying for a mini-storage (I'm just assuming); it's a win, win.
I worked at two mini-storages whilein college on the weekends.
I learned men and women valued different possessions.
In 99% of the cases, the rent/fees did not add up, but we like our stuff. I get it.
Once a month, an angry customer would empty their unit into a dumptster. The owner had signs up about dumping, but I wasen't paid enough to deal with the person who was at their last bit of hope, and decided Saturday was the day to finally dump it all. One out of 50 customers finally realized that junk they were hanging onto was not worth it.
I did talk one guy out of getting rid of his first edition books though. I was watching him throw away case after case of books into the dumptster. I was sweeping near the dumptster. The first book I picked out of the trash, was a signed book by Hemingway. I knew he wasen't crazy, but he was angry with life.
There was a part of me that just wanted him to leave, and my broke ass could make some good money selling the books.
I decided to tell him forcefully that he was being rash. He took his books out of the trash, and put them back in his unit.
I left the job a few weeks later. Always wondered how his life turned out.
(If you ever have to use a mini-storage: 1. Prorate the rent to the 1 day of the month. Mini-storage owners love late fees. Pick a mini-storage with cameras. People steal, even the mini-storage owners. If renting on the top floor, and the owner only used chicken wire to enclose the ceiling of the unit; you are taking a risk. It's easy to get into your unit. Realize the hardest part of storage is moving your crap in. Most people leave their belongings in way to long. The mini-storage owners know this, and that's why you see ploys like 1st month free bs. I've always felt the government should provide all homeless individuals with free lockers. I saw so many people trying to live out of their car whike renting a unit. I only was one guy who succeed year, after year. My Mini-storage rant is over.)
1. It's auxiliary storage for e.g. outdoor gear you use that you can't fit in your apartment
2. It's essentially bridge storage for stuff that will be moved somewhere new (e.g. a second apartment/home) on a fairly fixed timeframe
On the other hand, it just going to be a headache for you or someone else if it's just stuff you don't have room for and don't have any real plans to have room for it. Both my brother and a friend have gone through this recently with relatives where cleaning out storage lockers was a huge PITA.
1. I belive I'm Shadow banned, but who cares, and here goes. (There's a positive side to being banned on HN, but that's another story.)
2. If anyone hears me, yes, it would be great if all homeless had access to good Psychiatric help. And what's help good these days?
3. The chronic homeless I know just want a legal place to poop, and pitch a tent.
4. Most aren't seriously mentally ill; just the end result of a careless, brutal economic system. A system that fails many of us, especially the ones without a stable support system. What's that support system? Usually a caring family member. That caring family member that is always left out of the "I'm a winner" speech.
5. Rich boys can find themselves in college, and the job market.
6. Poor boys have one, or two chances.
7. A mental/physical hiccup can bring a poor boy down quick.
8. I don't want to debate, but we need areas of land that people who don't fit in can camp. We need it immediately.
9. Counties are using that "break on the glass theory" to harass poor souls to suicide, and worse. Worse is deficating on your streets? You don't like it, nor do I, but where are they suspose to relieve themselfs?
10. We need free plots of land, and bathrooms for the homeless. I've never heard a homeless person ask for much. My buddies just want to legal place to sleep, and a legal place to relive themselfs.
11. We are currently living in a society where everything is basically illegial. 100 years ago most people were basically homeless, but they had hope, and weren't harassed, vilified for not fitting in. Those days are gone, and we wonder why they do drugs?
He would just yack, and yack. Some times I would put the phone down, and come back in 5 minutes, and he would still be talking. He was eccentric, had a horrid childhood, but genuinely nice.
I thought he was nuts, but nice.
We ended up becoming best friends. They used to call us the odd couple.
I ended up trusted him more than family. We just included each other in everthing without even thinking. My girlfriends were put off by him at first, but he would wear them down talking, and before I knew it, he was calling them daily. And when he missed a day, they would ask me if he is ok. He never crossed the line either.
He died a few years ago, but his friendship technique was something I thought was brilliant. Just wear the person down.
I can pass this along, I once heard a therapist say something like, make friends with people your own age, or younger. Her rationale was they will die before you.
When I was in my tewenties, I just didn't have much in common with my peers. I wasen't more mature, but didn't like my generation that much. My friends were just older. I really loved all of them.
If I had a do-over, I might have really tried to make friends with people my own age. I'm all alone now. It does suck.
Anyways, my eccentric friend knew how to make friends. I haven't tried his technique, but might?
And who's going to be "The Side Hustler" who goes out and buys a late model Van with a wheel chair lift? And, I imagine Uber would have an aesthetic model requirement too?
It all great, except for the Side Hustlers?
(I recently saw the shimmy man argue with a Uber driver over having to declare bankruptcy. Just wrong. Drivers, maybe it's time to slowly look into forming a union? Quietly. Will it ever happen? No--because too many people are desperate for any work.)
Some of the most interesting people, I recall, have been Futzers. So many of them really clever people. I don't even know if Futzers us a word, but I hope the world produces more Futzers.
When I was a kid--it was kinda frowned upon. "Don't waste your time fooling around?". I think times have changed though? I hope?
The other day I made a watch band using the leather from my old boots, and dental floss. I didn't tell anyone because I knew it would be considered excentric.
There's still surprising amount of hostility to tinkerers to this day. When one of my hobby hw projects got picked up by hackaday and petapixel, the comments were mostly negative to downright rude.
None of them even questioned the execution, but the point of doing it. It ranged from calling me a stupid hispter up to insinuating I'm a con artist who will use that to rip people off on kickstarter(?!?).
Hackaday comments are terrible no matter the subject. I don't know why, but they always have been; useful content is seldom and the tone is that of a struggle session. When you're on Hackaday, nothing is about fun. You are hobbying wrong and the world has to know about it RIGHT NOW. Granted, there's the occasional case where flagrant disregard for safety exists and wants addressing, but even that, I think, could be more usefully handled with less of a "you're worthless and you should feel terrible about yourself" vibe, not least because if you drive decent people away with your godawful attitude, no one's going to hear your warning.
I don't know from Petapixel, but if it's the hobby photographer equivalent of Hackaday, that's terrifying. I'm sure there are serious amateur photographers who are also perfectly nice people, but for some reason the ones I find myself dealing with are more on the "why bother trying to frame anything, it's a phone so it'll come out bad anyway" level. I'm sure that guy would be perfectly at home on Petapixel.
"The most resilient part of the industry is that you buy a Swiss watch because you want to say, 'I have a Swiss watch,'" said Paul Swinand"
I love mechanical watches. I repair watches. I love all things related to horology.
That said, if I bought a new Rolex, I really wouldn't own the watch the minute it went out of warranty.
What? Yea, Rolex, and 99% of the other Swiss Watch Companies will not sell parts to their customers. They want you to send it back to the factory, at factory prices, when it needs a service, or breaks down.
If anyone from The Swiss Watch Industry is listening, enough with the "quality assurance" bs. Your industry is in a very delicate point in history. If you don't clean up you act, the quartz crisis of the 70's will look like minor stumbling block.
I never though I would say this, but lately, that Apple Watch is looking better. I just don't want to carry around an IPhone.
So, stop abusing the anti-trust act, and be very friendly to anyone whom buys your overpriced hunks of metal. You're in no position to call any shots, or get cute. If I owned your stock; I would short it yesterday.
(Sorry if I sound bitter. In the last 7 years, the Swiss watch companies pissed off a lot of Independant Watch Repairers, by not selling parts. The average dude with the $25,000 watch has no clue that he/she really doesn't own that watch. They are essentially leasing it. Having the right to repair(let the customer decide whom is going to repair) is so essential to the future of mechanical watches.)
It's not the least bit surprising that a company like Rolex would not sell parts directly to customers. I imagine that 99% of the time that would end disastrously, and they would have quite a lot of customers who haphazardly dismantle their watches and then are unable to properly clean, lube, reassemble, and test them. Once that happens, you know who the customer is going to blame. This is exactly why companies like Apple are happy to sell you an iPhone but are NOT going to sell you a single capacitor or wire, or even a complete circuit board. Do you think Apple is going to sell you individual parts for that Apple Watch?
Continuing with your example, getting a Rolex serviced by skilled third party technicians, using genuine Rolex parts (because Rolex is happy to sell parts directly to qualified technicians), is not a problem. There are dozens of highly recommended shops in the US alone, e.g. https://www.bobswatches.com/more/watch-repair-service.
Are those parts patented? If not then the independents should be producing their own clones. And if they are, mechanical watches are supposed to have a very long service life, so they can wait for the patents to expire.
Unless the watch companies are doing something actually illegal I don't see how they are doing anything wrong. Why should they be forced to help their competitors?
You don't have to send it to Switzerland or even to a local dealer. There are a lot of reputable, independent vendors that will service, for example, a Submariner, for a fraction of what Rolex would charge.
I overheard someone last night talking about their father.
At 18, he had to join the Army. He spent the next two years in Europe.
He came home, and went to school on the GI bill.
He then went from job to job--trying to find one that had purpose. He decided to live in a commune. He bought a Indian motorcycle, and took off across the United States. When he need money, he would take odd jobs.(almost impossible today, unless you want to end up like that guy in Alaska who died in a bus.) He liked to drink, and smoke. He got into bar fights.(see how that one lapse of judgement will ruin your life today.) He finally found a job he liked. It was journalism. Within months, he had Union benefits.(again--try to find that today). Within a year, he had a house.(again--blah, blah, blah.) Then a wife, and kids.
I took away two things from that speech.
I couldn't imagine having to go to war at 18.
The other was all the things he did when he got home, and how now---just one mistake could ruin the future of a young person.
I'm not a millennial.
That said, I don't like this economy. I don't like knowing if I make one mistake, I could seriously derail my life. I don't like the fact that we have made so many things, once legal, illegial. Hell, you can't even smoke a cigarette in a park. You can't bum around until you find youself. You're lucky if you have a parent that has a basement you can throw a mattress in.
I really just don't like this current American society.
Would I want to be thrown into a war at 18--no.
That's about all I don't like about the past though.
(I won't be back to debate all the clever counter points. All I know is it's not great today. America has lost a lot. This is not the best country anymore. We need change. I would like to start with rolling back laws. It seems like there's a law against everything? Again, I won't be back, but understand the frustration out there.)
